Who was Barbara Mitchell?
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The Budget That Changed Canada: Essays on the 25th Anniversary of the 1995 Budget is a new book of collected essays celebrating Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin’s historic federal budget that tackled head-on the pressing fiscal challenges facing the nation following nearly 30 years of deficits and mounting debt. The 1995 budget, which reduced program spending and led to balanced budgets, shrinking debt and eventually broad-based tax relief, laid the foundation for more than a decade of economic prosperity and is one of the main reasons Canada weathered the 2009 global recession better than most other industrialized countries.

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Annual Survey of Mining Companies, 2019

This year’s Annual Survey of Mining Companies finds that, for the first time in 10 years, no Canadian jurisdiction ranks in the top 10 for “investment attractiveness” according to mining executives and investors.

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Alberta’s Lost Advantage on Personal Income Tax Rates

Alberta’s Lost Advantage on Personal Income Tax Rates finds that the province’s top combined personal income tax rate is now more than 10 percentage points higher than the top rate in several other energy-producing jurisdictions. Whereas in 2014, Alberta’s top PIT rate was the lowest in North America, now it is the 10th highest following tax increases by the provincial and federal governments, and a reduction of the federal top rate in the U.S.

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Interest Costs and their Growing Burden on Canadians

Interest Costs and their Growing Burden on Canadians finds that in fiscal year 2019-20, Ottawa will spend more than $24 billion on federal debt interest payments, as the federal debt has increased by more than $260 billion since the 2008-09 recession. The study also compares government debt interest costs among provinces.

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Uneven Recovery: Job Creation in Ontario’s Urban Centres between 2008 and 2018

Uneven Recovery: Job Creation in Ontario’s Urban Centres between 2008 and 2018, which compares the job-creation numbers of various regions across Ontario, finds that 90.8 per cent of all net job-creation in the province since the 2008/09 recession occurred in the GTA and Ottawa.

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Examining Federal Debt in Canada by Prime Ministers Since Confederation, 2020

Examining Federal Debt in Canada by Prime Ministers Since Confederation, 2020 finds that Justin Trudeau is the only prime minister since 1900—and only one of three prime ministers since Confederation—whose government increased Canada’s per-person debt without facing a world war or recession. Compare that to other recent governments led by Jean Chrétien, Paul Martin and Lester B. Pearson whose tenures were also without a world war or recession. The Chrétien government cut per-person federal government debt by 13.3 per cent followed by Martin’s (7.6 per cent) and Pearson’s (6.7 per cent).

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Comparing Government and Private Sector Compensation in Atlantic Canada

Comparing Government and Private Sector Compensation in Atlantic Canada finds that public-sector employees in the four Atlantic provinces—including municipal, provincial and federal government workers—received 11.9 per cent higher wages on average than comparable workers in the private sector in 2018, and also enjoyed more generous pensions, earlier retirement, more time off for personal leave and greater job security.

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